Op-Ed: In March the Supreme Court in the UK ruled that letters sent to MP's by Prince Charles should be published. The campaign by Prince Charles and his advisers to prevent that happening had been long and costly. Wednesday 27 letters dubbed the 'black spider memos' were finally published and in spite of some in the mainstream media, such as BBC News, trying to dismiss the letters as inconsequential it was an important step in the UK. It is worth noting that the letters were not published until almost a week after the May 7 General Election and whether or not that is telling is for you to decide.

The letters revealed were all sent to Labour ministers; and letters to Tony Blair include promoting fox hunting and a badger cull.

Yes in both cases Charles proved to be a supporter of killing animals.

He has no doubt written letters to MPS of other political persuasions notably the Tories unless he talks to their MPs more directly.

The Tories ushered in a limited badger cull in 2013 allegedly aimed at tackling bovine TB but were they just bowing to his Royal Highness?

"In a 2005 letter, the prince referred to "the most pressing and urgent problem" of tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, which was "caused and spread" by badgers. He wrote: "I do urge you to look again at introducing a proper cull of badgers where it is necessary. The Labour government later rejected a cull in the English countryside" reports the BBC Wednesday.

That report also says "Prince Charles wrote: "I, for one, cannot understand how the 'badger lobby' seem to mind not at all about the slaughter of thousands of expensive cattle, and yet object to a managed cull of an over-population of badgers - to me, this is intellectually dishonest." In reply, Mr Blair said he could "personally see the case for culling badgers" but did not want to prejudge a decision by environment ministers"."

Note Charles is more bothered about the financial cost of cattle not their demise.

But of course there are other ways to tackle the spread of bovine TB and beat it; alternative methods also involve cost but are humane.

The 2015 Tory election manifesto included a commitment to a free vote in Parliament to overturn the Hunting Act and as that party has a majority in government it does not look good for foxes and other animals in the UK.

But could the 15 year old Freedom of Information Act, a piece of Labour legislation, also be under threat and ultimately scrapped? Without the FOI act Charles' meddling in a 'democratic' government would go on unnoticed.

In March we began our report saying "Let's start with a poll. Hands up all those who believe that there is Freedom of Information in the UK some of the time, all of the time, none of the time or that it depends who is involved. Yes the last one is probably the most appropriate, especially when Members of the British Royal Family are involved. In October 2012 we reported "Access to Prince Charles letters blocked" as claims that he was more active in British politics than previously known hit headlines.

An ongoing argument in the UK in particular about whether letters Prince Charles, heir to the throne, had sent to UK Ministers should be made public or not ensued; a battle Royal, pun intended, over what should be released and what should remain hidden from the eyes of we Plebs. Seven government departments fought a last ditch attempt to ensure that at least parts of this correspondence remained buried away from public eyes. Now why do you suppose they would want to do that?

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